Helen Lewis

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Leon Knight, ex-footballer and noted misogynist, suspended from Twitter

His "Slag Alert Pictures" stunt backfired.

Leon Knight, who has been suspended from Twitter. Photo: Getty
Leon Knight, who has been suspended from Twitter, in the shirt of his former club, Swansea. Photo: Getty

Leon Knight was a footballer. At the age of 29, he finds himself without a club, after he was released from Glentoran after allegedly making homophobic comments on Twitter.

Until yesterday, though, there was a place where Leon Knight still had an audience: Twitter.  As @leonknight82, he had 102,800 followers, who enjoyed such banterous tweets as "Hoes have to know 80% of men have a sat nav hoe alert device programmed into our brains you can't fool us lol #beat&delete". A month ago, he went after Jamie O'Hara, claiming that his wife Danielle was a "hoe" and trying to provoke both of them into responding to his increasingly obscene tweets. (I made a Storify of that here; it's pretty unpleasant).

Anyway, for the last couple of days, Knight has been trailing "Slag Alert Pictures", his latest brave foray into the world of "exposing" women who've sent dirty pictures to their boyfriends. He even created a hashtag, #SAP. The plan was to tweet compromising pictures of these women, to shame them - and entertain his fans. The stunt added tens of thousands of followers

Now, I'm not going to detain you with amateur psychology on Leon Knight, who seems to veer between common or garden misogyny and "person you'd cross the continent on avoid". I just wanted to make a record of exactly how this went down.

First, Knight tweeted about the #SAP idea, and published an email address for people to send pictures to.

He claimed that someone had sent the following email, and he'd therefore decided to have mercy on them:

 

 

Then he published an image of a chalk board with the Twitter handles of the women he planned to target. Clearly, a fair proportion of his 102,000 fans then got in touch with the women to taunt them about their upcoming public vilification, because you see messages like this:

 

 

Not everyone was cowed, though:

 

 

Rather heartwarmingly, one of the targeted women's timeline simply contained "thank you" after "thank you", as she showed her gratitude to all the people who'd got in touch to say how horrific they found the whole idea.

That angered Leon Knight, who started tweeting that he was going to "ruin her whole life". (I've blanked out her name.)

 

 

Tragically, nothing was going to stop Leon Knight. I missed his initial flurry of tweets, and by the time that I checked, the photos he'd posted had disappeared. Here he claims that "Twitter" had deleted them.

 

By the end of the evening, one of the women said that she was receiving death threats and tweeted a photo of herself apparently in a police station, where she claimed to be reporting the crime. (I've been unable to find any credible report of Knight's arrest, although the rumour has been swirling on blogs and social networking sites). Another one of the Twitter handles from Knight's "blackboard of shame" appeared to show that the account had been deleted. 

And this morning, I checked for Leon Knight's account and found this:

Now, I don't think there are any grand conclusions to be drawn from this - apart from the fact that misogynists have fan clubs. It was a man who tipped me off about Knight's latest rampage, and for every witless idiot cheering him on, there was someone else disgusted by the flagrant bullying and slut-shaming. 

But it is worth recording. Because this stuff happens, and ignoring it won't stop it happening. Staffordshire police looked into Knight's earlier tweets to Jamie and Danielle O'Hara, and yet there he was last night, moving on to a new target. As our lives get more and more networked, those of us who use public spaces are going to have to decide how to deal with the Leon Knights of this world. 

Or, as This Is My England put it:

Digital technologies: changing faster than we get get our heads around the risks which come along with the useful functionalities. So let's be careful out there.

Update 2.30pm I've just contacted Staffordshire Police's press office, who confirm that Knight was cautioned last month over the tweets to the O'Haras. But they haven't received a new complaint.   

16 comments

jessica warner's picture

Usherwood I AM a upstanding member of society, i have a job, i pay tax, i have my own home, car, i do voluntary work, have a loving family, i do not drink nor do i take drugs and i am degree educated and i cause no one any problems.
I am also entitled to do as i so wish in a private relationship without having to justify it to others, my ex boyfriend is a coward, bully and now a criminal.
How dare you suggest what you have. I did not deserve this, i did not WANT this and i am now as a result unable to sleep in my own home as my address and phone number was also leaked.
You should be ashamed of yourself for what you have wrote about me.

Pavlova's picture

Well anyone can make a complaint to the police about this, so why don't you do so Helen? It's time hate crimes against women were taken as seriously as the other kinds. you have copies of the tweets and email, you have less to lose that the targeted women themselves.

Usherwood's picture

He's clearly an idiot on an epic scale. Let's be honest here though, the women responsible for the photos he posts are hardly upstanding bastions of society are they. Brainless, pointless attention seekers one and all.

jessica warner's picture

What a brainless remark.
How dare you! And you are an upstanding member of society or just a sad internet troll?

Truefitt & hill shaving cream's picture

According to me, twitter is a great social networking site with high visitors traffic and so its our own duty to care of those things which we share or post on twitter. I also want to share something with you i.e. related to Truefitt & hill shaving and if you also want to know about my story just contact me.

Jessica Warner 's picture

Helen please insure you get your facts correct

I have given a statement
please call hounslow police and you will get your info tomorrow

Don't encourage his trolls who have been threatening to beat me up for being a 'slag' and a grass and that the police don't care about this, because they do

A Worried Man's picture

I'm not sure the term misogynist really fits here? A hatred of women doesn't come across from his fairly childish tweets.
Could you clarify?

Lori Saturnia's picture

Really? I think this is absolutely misogyny, his behaviour shows pure hatred for women by publishing intimate photos and calling them abusive names, and directly threatening individuals. I don't see this as childish, it's vindictively and maliciously attacking women he doesn't know for no reason other than his own bitterness. I don't know how much more misogynistic you can get to be fair.

Robin hood's picture

Witless fans? Poor ,poor and more poor. Your life has obviously been very dull

David Jeffrey's picture

Could someone get in contact with Leon and ask if he wants to sign for Linfield?

Running out of ideas with this team

sadesarla's picture

You're short of strikers at Linfield, right enough :)

sadesarla's picture

It's also worth noting that his contract at his last club was terminated through a probationary clause mainly due to homophobic tweets. It seems that anyone who he sees as challenging his sexuality is to be attacked and humiliated.

Helen Lewis's picture

Hi Steve,

I'll add that the picture is from a previous club.

Helen

this is my england's picture

Thanks for the name check. Regarding your 2.30 update - why would Staffordshire police receive a complaint re: last night's antics? Knight lives, I believe somewhere in the SW London area. Staffs police would presumably have only been involved in the Jamie & Danielle O'Hara complaint because the Wolves players, I guess, lives in that neck of the woods.

Helen Lewis's picture

@ This is My England

I doubted that they would - just wanted to confirm with them the status of that investigation. 

steve_cov's picture

Helen, it would be helpful if someone would either remove the picture of Knight in a Swansea City shirt or clarify that he was removed from the club in 2007.

It might also be interesting to find out why Knight suggested via Twitter on 18 July that Kenny Jackett, the Millwall manager who was in charge at Swansea in 2007, had "planted" something at some point. As the reasons for Knight's sudden departure from Swansea were never publicised, some light may be shed on that mystery too.

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